Honestly though Almscliff is pretty great on a still, sunny, winter-belter and today was one of those. At 12.20 I could wait for it to warm the ice no more and I drove up to the Cliff. There were no clouds in the sky, I checked twice. First I ran into Dean and a couple of his mates who were bothering Hanging Rib it warmed me up but didn't massage my ego, I was finding crimping tough.
Bryn and Stu arrived with Cosmo and they warmed through on Low Man Slab. After that I persuaded them to spot me on South Cave Arete this year's first project. Three goes and no progress and then Rachael arrived with the boys.
I walked down and back with two excited children and we had a little bimble around. Stu and Bryn getting up the Wall of the cave via that big jug, the boys commando crawling under barbed wire fences. I had another go at SCA and this time progress by slapping further up the runnel, where I managed to get a pinch of sorts due to cold weather super friction. One mighty press and heave later and it was in the bag and a good start to the campaign for this year.
The boys did a few problems and Bryn bothered MK wall, but it bothered him back. Then we wandered off to claim a geocache as Rachael returned from her run. As the temperature dropped back below zero we retreated but I have got that deep golden sun in my head as I write this. Maybe February won't beat me up mentally this year.
